End the War on Freedom

Oh sure, there were a few days of disoriented silence from the forces of Big Government in the days following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 -- Miss Hillary looking particularly sour-faced as President Bush rallied the nation to war in the aftermath of the World Trade Center Bombing. (How do you issue the rote call for more "gun control" when the terrorists used nothing but knives, apparently pre-positioned by contract caterers?)

But the backers of the subsidized police state soon regained their equilibrium, spotting an opportunity to fill their own pre-positioned Santa sacks.

In a "spending panic," Congress has "encouraged everyone from insurance, steel, hotels and restaurants to hold out their hands," the Wall Street Journal editorialized last week. "Ideas are also flowing fast to push money for unemployment benefits, raise the minimum wage, and undertake a whole new national effort for schools, roads, bridges and waste disposal."

Hoo-hah!

Are the mullahs of the Taliban really upset with us because the counter-clerks at Wendy's are underpaid? Does anyone really believe we can dissuade them from further attacks on us by improving garbage pick-ups at Cabrini Green? What, no "anti-terrorism" angle to justify expansion of the bee and mohair subsidies?

Even Amtrak, America's subsidized, yet still struggling, passenger rail line, bellied up to the bar a few days after the terrorist assaults and asked for $3 billion to improve and extend service, and ... oh yeah, that's right, "augment security," as well.

(Americans, regardless of their Ninth Amendment right to travel, will now be asked to show a "government-issued photo ID" before boarding a train. Why? Didn't the Sept. 11 hijackers all have and show photo IDs? If college kids have no problem faking professional-looking IDs to buy beer, do we really think we can stop the KGB-trained experts of Syria and Iraq ... even if our cops take to stopping us on the streets and asking us "May I see your papers please," the way they did in Nazi Germany?)

But, most predictably of all, now come calls for virtually unlimited federal power to snoop on our e-mail and voicemail messages and other electronic communications (the debate over whether FBI Carnivore devices should be allowed at every ISP being particularly disingenuous -- insiders tell us in most cases they're already there) ... not to mention a new presidential exercise of the already dangerous power to freeze the bank and brokerage accounts of anyone suspected of "suspicious or anti-government" activity, without right of appeal or benefit of due process.

(President Bush froze the accounts of 27 individuals and groups on Sept. 24. Was there any "due process" involved? Any right to appeal if someone felt they made the list without justification? Did our eagle-eyed national media -- so-called guardians of our freedoms -- even ask?)

Is more evidence needed that the statists are willing to dance on the corpses of the newly fallen in their rush to fulfill their pre-established anti-freedom wish lists? Then let's talk for a moment about Attorney General John Ashcroft and so-called "Libertarian" Larry Ellison of Oracle Computers, conspiring to gin up huge new "defense contracts" to wire us all up with "smart chip" national identity cards ... all in the name of "stopping terrorism," of course.

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Don't get me wrong. Neither I nor anyone at Privacy Alert wishes anything but swift and thorough justice for the Sept. 11 murderers, and their backers, now trying so hard to burrow out of sight. As a matter of fact, my "bomb them with bread" friends are a tad upset with me for my firm stance that we should indeed meddle less in the affairs of foreign nations so as to make ourselves fewer enemies and avoid war as best we can ... but that when deadly large-scale war is forced upon us, our goal should be to destroy our attackers as quickly and thoroughly as possible.

But the three relevant questions which should now confront any proposed "anti-terrorist measures" are whether they would have stopped the Sept. 11 attacks or any likely future attacks -- (for the most part they wouldn't) -- whether any freedom-oriented solutions exist that are more LIKELY to work -- (like restoring the right of American travelers to go armed) -- and whether the snoop-and-scoop police state Mr. Ashcroft et al. have in mind would bear even passing resemblance to the "Land of the Free" which, once again, red-blooded Americans are now girding to defend -- (it wouldn't.)

Spinning up the "tax-and-spend" machine and re-labeling it "Anti-terrorism and Economic Stimulus" is disgusting, phony, and dangerous. It misallocates precious resources just when they're needed most.

But it's the last gasp of the Jurassic Pork. Even before Sept. 11, the folks in Washington City had begun to realize that their 70-year tyranny of direct taxation -- all the numbering and tracking of a once free people -- was beginning to hemorrhage at the seams, thanks in large part to the ability of the Internet to spread information not subject to the quasi-official censorship of the "public" schools and the captive corporate "news" media.

Even before Sept. 11, it was clear that financial privacy was a "hot" topic. Airline magazines carried ads for $100 books full of tax "loopholes" and third-hand advice on how to salt away your millions in Austria or Liechtenstein ... rarely mentioning those huge minimum deposits and annual maintenance fees.

The question is: Where is there a reliable, experienced American newsman with an anti-establishment bent -- someone resisters and gun nuts and independent-minded freedom-lovers of all kinds already know they can trust -- to go check this stuff out first-hand, reporting back on what really works?

Well, try me -- for nine years I've been America's nationally syndicated libertarian newspaper columnist, and I authored the book "Send in the Waco Killers" ... 1999's "Freedom Book of the Year."

As I've toured the country over the past two years, speaking to tax resisters, to Libertarian Party affiliates, to gun clubs -- anyone who'd listen -- the question I've heard most often is, "What can we do, Vin? "Years of painting yard signs for local independent or third party candidates sure didn't help any -- they won't even let us explain our positions on TV. What can we do?"

I used to talk about home-schooling. I used to talk about exercising our gun rights before they're gone; teaching your neighbors and friends about the power of the fully-informed jury.

I'll still talk and write about those things.

But is that really enough, when the first time one of us tries to resist America's burgeoning welfare/police state, some government flunky can decide on a whim to freeze or seize our assets, go after our homes and families with some bogus charge of "money laundering" or "tax evasion" or "child abuse" ... or anything else that strikes their fancy?

You work hard and you merely want something left to turn over to your grandkids. But how do you avoid the last thrashings of the dying dinosaur's tail? How do you divorce yourself far enough from their "system" that they can't even FIND most of your assets? How can you smile at the snarling child welfare worker as you gently close the door and say, "Sorry, no one in this house has volunteered to submit to the authority of your payroll taxes, your government propaganda camps, or your 'public health' programs. Guess you'll just have to go elsewhere to find your 'regulatory nexus,' won't you, honey?"

I don't have all the answers. (At the start, I had embarrassingly few.) But I've started to build an inspired and motivated research team that's helping me track them down as fast as we can. And so was born, of necessity and hope and determination, our monthly newsletter, "Privacy Alert."

FAST OUT OF THE GATE

Privacy Alert is an interactive work in progress. We don't simply repackage and rehash dated third-hand "shortcuts" from other people's books and newsletters. Instead, we're jumping through the asset-protection and privacy hoops ourselves. That way we can describe in detail, from first-hand experience, the ins and outs of what works, and what doesn't.

In our first eight issues (March through October, 2001) we reported on:

-- Our first exploratory trip overseas, checking out the purported advantages of the little Central American nation of Belize as an international haven of financial privacy (even as the international drug police are trying to blackmail the smaller Caribbean states out of allowing any banking privacy at all ... with encouragingly mixed results). Trips to Panama, the British Virgins, and Nevis are planned; eventually, we'll take long first-hand looks at Switzerland, Austria, the Channel Islands, Andorra ...

-- The true nature of the tax laws -- where and to whom they apply; plummeting compliance rates and the booming industry in getting folks out from under an American tax tyranny that hasn't been following the law -- or even its own "policies and procedures" -- for decades; how to join a group whose members "insure" each other against IRS seizures; how to live without a bank account; to whom and when you must reveal your SSN (Socialist Slave Number).

-- Our adventures (and misadventures) with asset-protection seminars we've attended -- how to set up "trusts in contract form," banking unincorporated business organizations (trust checking accounts at commercial banks without federal ID numbers), anonymous onshore credit and ATM cards -- even a receivables and factoring company that sets up anonymous "bank" accounts.

-- An update by Alan Korwin on the new anti-gun-show bill in Congress (it's much worse than you thought); the first installment of Claire Wolfe's series profiling ON-shore privacy havens; L. Neil Smith on Concealed Carry, an exclusive interview with reclusive author Boston T. Party ...

-- Updates on the dangerous expansion of the Drug War into what could become our own, "South American Vietnam," and how Steve Kubby learned there's more freedom for him and his family in Canada ...

AND THOSE EXCLUSIVE SPECIAL REPORTS

[These really excite me. Special eight-to-12-page supplements that give readers cutting-edge reporting from yours truly, award-winning 30-year investigative reporter and author, on a range of vital subjects that no one else in the "establishment media" seems willing to even touch.]

Of course these reports aren't available elsewhere. We charge $15 and up for each one -- but Privacy Alert subscribers get them first, at no extra Charge.

-- In March, I laid bare the the ongoing campaign by the federal government to remove cattle ranchers from the land -- part of a continuing scheme to reduce human use (and even population) of the Western open spaces by fully one third, while establishing radical "Environmentalism" as a state religion.

-- In June, I focused on the "gun-rights" lobbying game, exposing the National Rifle Association as the nation's largest gun control organization.

-- In August, I released "We're from the government, we're here to take your kids," a heart-wrenching report on a wave of government childnappings that makes it clear these people believe the state really owns our children, leaving them in our charge only until we misbehave - which can include anything from home-schooling to keeping guns in your home.

Why are these reports important? To remind us -- and help us to convince our loved ones -- that the systematic rape of our rights and freedoms has not slowed, and that taking privacy measures ... getting ourselves "out of the system" as far as we can ... may be the only way left for us to at least hand down our traditions of freedom to the next generation.

HAS ANY OF THIS INTRIGUED YOU?

Freedom fighters come in many shapes. You may be a home-schooler outflanking that particular government monopoly, or a gun rights activist resisting victim disarmament. Maybe your cause is fully-informed juries, or children crippled by "mandatory" vaccines, or exposing the true nature of the crippling "payroll tax."

Maybe you're just an ordinary, freedom-respecting American who simply thinks your affairs are "none of their damned business."

No matter, you're going to be a lot less effective if the first regulator, taxman, ambulance chaser, or "child welfare" kidnapper to "get your number" can freeze or seize your paycheck, your bank account ... even your children.

I said this is an interactive project. Our hope is that the readers of and contributors to "Privacy Alert" will eventually form a motley army of resistance fighters swarming the bureaucratic tyranny from all sides, like Sherman's columns on their way to the sea ...

HOW DO YOU JOIN UP?

A subscription is just $72 for 1 year (12 issues) -- this is the introductory charter subscription rate, and it goes up to $96 in December. (Really.) By subscribing now, you get the $24 savings _and_ as a bonus you may choose either my 500+ page book, "Send In The Waco Killers: Essays on the Freedom Movement," or "Lever Action," L. Neil Smith's new 460-page book of essays on gun rights, politics, liberty and breakfast (each a $22 value), or the most recent four back issues of Privacy Alert (a $24 value).

For an even BETTER deal, you can get 24 issues with a 2 year subscription, for only $130. You get a huge $62 savings on the subscription, and you may choose _two_ of the three bonus items listed above.

Don't Wait. Don't Throw Away Your Privacy!

HERE'S HOW TO ORDER:

Send check, money order, or cash (wrap it up good) to: Privacy Alert, 561 Keystone Ave., No. 684, Reno, NV 89503. Or e-mail your order with a credit card number to: privacyalert@thespiritof76.com. Or call our offices with your credit card number at 775-348-8591.

For that matter, if you just want to see a fair sample of our work before subscribing, send $15 and we'll send you either 2 of our back issues, or one back issue and one of the special reports -- your choice (and you can specify which special report).

At a rate of about a dozen a day ... like Volunteers straggling into Valley Forge, not even able to explain how they can possibly hope to win ... the subscriptions come in. From California, from Arizona, from Texas, from Florida, from Pennsylvania ... from New Zealand, and Canada, and South Africa ...

We happy few.

Join us. Or were you planning to wait a few months, to see what ELSE they can dream up for us in Washington, before you get started, protecting your own future privacy and freedom ... and your children's?

How MANY more months?

In Liberty,

-- Vin Suprynowicz

Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com

"When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right." -- Eugene V. Debs (1855-1926)

"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken

"They that would give up essential liberty for a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin 1759

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